Ski poles, sometimes referred to as stocks, are used by skiers for balance and propulsion. A modern ski pole typically has a shaft made of aluminium or carbon fibre, a grip (handle) attached to the upper part of the shaft, and a basket near the bottom end of the shaft to stop the pole from sinking into deep snow. The grips of most ski poles are provided with straps that are slipped over the wrist to improve the skiers hold on the grip, and to prevent the loss of the pole in the event of a fall.
In ski resorts, chair lifts are the most common way for skiers to ascend the mountain to the top of the ski trails. When queuing to get on a chair lift, a skier is expected to take the pole straps off their wrists, and not to slip them back on until after they have got off the chair lift. When getting seated into a chair lift, the skier typically holds both ski poles in one hand whilst using the other hand to bring down the safety bar. Should the skier not securely hold onto the ski poles it is easy to drop them, which may pose a hazard and the inconvenience involved in retrieving them.
There is prior art directed to connecting ski poles so that they can be carried and stowed both on and off chair lifts. Some of these proposals as described in DE221873 (Westerhoff), U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,202 (Loffelholz) and FIG. 6 of DE10325081 (Baumgartner) utilize magnets on the grips to interconnect them. One of the problems with such devices is that when the grips are close to each other, the magnets will cause attraction and connection even when the skier doesn't want them connected. Furthermore the magnets may be attracted to other ferromagnetic materials.
DE10325081 also describes other embodiments which involve non-magnetic locking, with the locking parts on or below the lower part of the grips. In these arrangements it is difficult to quickly connect and disconnect them, and some are more suited for long term connection rather than a quick connect of the ski poles when intending to get on a chair lift. One of the reasons they are difficult to quick connect, is that ski poles whilst being held by a user must be placed one in front of the other, as the locking parts are in the respective aft and fore sections of the lower part of the grips, making them difficult to quickly align for connection. Some of these embodiments also significantly alter the configuration of the lower part of the hand grips and have large protruding locking parts, which are not desirable as they can inadvertently catch or snag onto to clothing, or easily become damaged.
One arrangement used for detachably interconnecting ski poles mechanically is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,931 (Marker). It relies on snowheads (baskets) near the tip end of the poles, each of which have a first lower hook (a first pair of connecting elements) that can engage with each other, and each handle has a second upper hook (a second pair of connecting elements). In order to allow for the interconnection, the tubular shafts must be elastically deformable in length to at least an extent of the hooks. In order to connect, the lower hooks on the snowheads must engage with each other and the ski pole having the lower upward opening hook must be pulled upwards so that its tubular shaft extends elastically to allow the upper hook on the same ski pole to clear and then engage with the upper hook on the other ski pole. The primary disadvantage is that the hooks are at the lower end of the handle, which means that their location and the extent to which they protrude, may result in them catching or snagging onto to clothing/zippers and the like, or easily become damaged. This is because a user's hand grasps the ski pole handle above the hooks, and in use of the poles it is easy for the exposed protruding hooks to snag onto the user's clothing and the like.
Another arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,472 (Struble, Jr) show ski poles adapted to be mechanically connected together to hold a pair of skis. The ski poles have handles as shown in FIG. 5 that utilise a plurality of deep groove and rib formations formed in the front of each handle, which are adapted to interlock together. The ribs are enlarged at their outermost ends to provide a snapping action. However a number of disadvantages are associated with this arrangement. Firstly, the front of one handle requires alignment with front of the other handle such that ribs of one handle may be snapped into connection with the grooves of the other handle. This alignment must be accurately done to ensure that all the ribs on one handle align with the grooves on the other, and may not be carried out quickly otherwise there is a risk of incorrect connection or damage to the ribs. Secondly, the nature of the ribs and grooves means that debris, snow or ice can be embedded in the grooves (ie between the ribs) and trapped there by the enlarged outermost ends of the ribs, making it both difficult to remove such debris and/or snow/ice and to interconnect the handles. Furthermore, the handles are provided with straps and snap fasteners that are used to bind the handles together once the ribs and grooves have been connected. Both the abovementioned disadvantages make such interconnection of handles suited to stowing and transporting of poles and skis to and from the skiing area, rather than for a quick connection of ski poles on the ski slopes in order to ride a chair lift, or to have a short break from skiing.
All of these abovementioned prior art arrangements suffer from the various disadvantages discussed above, and are therefore not suitable for use on the ski fields during use of ski poles for quick and secure connection and disconnection. Despite some of the prior art mechanical locking arrangements being more than forty years old, they have not been commercialised.
The present invention seeks to overcome at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art.